Chill Weather
by cognomen
Summary: Memories of snow are shared aboard the Silvana. Part of of my fic Advent calendar.


"It was bigger than Claus," Lavie held up her hands to demonstrate, fingers inches higher than Claus' shaggy head. Then she extended her hands to indicate size, spreading her arms to encompass an area that Claus could stand in twice.

"We spent all day making it, it took all the snow in the yard." Claus laughed, "We had to 'borrow' some from the neighbors for the head."

"We even gave him an old set of goggles and a scarf." Lavie remembered, brushing absently at the front of her coveralls.

"It looked an awful lot like Fat Chicken, so she got kind of mad when she saw it." They both laughed. Al sensed the memory was winding to a close.

"What happened to it?" The little girl was transfixed, eyes far away as she pictured a truly spectacular man of snow.

"Um, well." Claus reached back and ran his fingers through his hair, embarrassed. "We still weren't too good at flying back then..."

"We crashed right through it, poof!" Lavie lifted her hands to indicate an explosion of snow, laughing. Al covered her eyes with her sheep, but she was smiling.

There were approaching footsteps, and they all looked up. Ship's captain, Alex Rowe approached, quietly, his footsteps accompanied by the dull thud of his cane on the deck. "You'll have to clear your airship off the strip," He said, quietly. "Tatiana and Alister will be taking off soon."

"But we're repairing it!" Lavie protested.

Alex swept his gaze over the three, seated just a little way away from the vanship, no tools in sight. He arched his brows, and turned to go. "They're taking off in twenty-five minutes." He repeated.

---

Tatiana stomped her feet angrily up and down the hangar, attempting to coax feeling back into them. Instead of this violent method, her Navi had taken off her boots and sat rubbing her feet to coax the circulation back. Both knew better than to just give in and shower before the pins and needles happened.

"It's too cold to -snow-." Tatiana said icily, rubbing her hands together with her sheepskin gloves under one arm.

"The captain didn't expect it to get so cold," Alister reasoned, "or he wouldn't have sent us out."

Tatiana stopped stomping, and for a moment, looked positively irate. "Remember that time he sent us out and my mask froze to my face?"

"Oh," Yes it was true, she remembered. "My hair all froze together."

"How about the time we had to build a fire to warm up the claudia because it froze in the lines?" Tatiana asked, bitterly.

Alister nodded. She remembered, she'd helped to gather sticks.

"And the time," Tatiana was full-on ranting now. It didn't matter if her Navi remembered or not. "That we flew through a cloud and came out sheeted with ice - everything but the engine block!" She stomped her foot, hard, and winced. There were the pins and needles.

"The mechanics still talk about it," Alister sighed.

"Maybe the captain thinks we -like- the cold!" Tatiana's eyes blazed, though she gave a little shiver in the middle of speaking. "He thinks -wrong-!"

A smooth voice, steps, the sound of a cane on the hangar floor, interrupted them. "Maybe I trust you to be the sort who can do it right, no matter -what- the conditions are." Alex, as was his custom, had been eavesdropping. Not that Tatiana had been anything like quiet.

Tatiana had at least the sense to look embarrassed.

---

"Tell him about the time you put out the fire with just your shirt!"

"Only, laundry hadn't been done in a while..."

"He had to wear the same one for a week, even with burn holes in it."

Uproarious laughter, another round of drinks.

"Tatiana wouldn't have you in her sight."

Everyone laughed again, huddled together as they were in blankets, at the far end of the hangar. They were waiting for the last of the vanships to return, drinking and huddling to keep warm.

"How about that one time we'd waited for hours, freezing, and she comes back with her vanship -coated- in ice?"

"She hovered over us like a mother hen while we chipped it out."

"Oh," Mullin said, breaking his silence - he hadn't been a mechanic for long, so he had no wondrous stories of impossible repair daring to share. "Why would she worry?"

"She thought we were going to chip the paint!"

More laughter, somewhat more earnest this time.

"What about you, Mullin? Haven't you ever done anything worth sharing?"

Mullin colored faintly. "Well, no. I was just a rifleman before I came to Silvana."

"What do you mean -just- a rifleman?"

"It's a lot more dangerous than fixing Vanships."

"I heard you had tons of survivor medals. Doesn't that mean you were in a lot of battles?"

"Jeez, surviving all those fights. You're tougher than you look!"

"You guys fight, too," Mullin protested, leaning back in his blanket, suddenly uncomfortable. "Nothing I've done is so amazing."

"You've lived," Sometime, their captain had joined them. They all scrambled for attention, but he waved it off, indicating they should relax. "That's amazing enough."

He looked out over the hangar, his eyes setting on the dinged and dingy old Vanship that belonged to Claus and Lavie. "Tatiana won't be back for another hour."

A collective groan rose from the mechanics.

---

She'd been searching for him all day, being told she'd just missed him at every stop. Who knew that a man could hide so well on a relatively small ship? He wasn't usually the sort to hide, but when he put his mind to avoiding someone, it was downright impossible to catch him.

It was late when she found him in his study, papers scattered on his desk, but not attended to. He was looking out the window instead.

"It's late," he said, and she paused in his doorway. She caught herself before she could feel guilty and pressed on.

"I've been looking for you all day," she explained in reply, though her tone held no real weight, only a serene reminder that she wouldn't have disturbed him at this hour had he been available sooner.

"I was listening to the ship," Alex said, cryptically. Sophia noted a glass of wine at his hand.

"What was it saying?" She stepped closer, but stayed at a polite distance, hands folded over her skirt.

"That it remembers," he answered, quietly. She heard.

'Instead of occupying it's self with the memories of others," she suggested, "it should forge new memories."

He was silent for a time, then nodded.

---

Two days later, in the morning, the ship's deck had been covered in snow. No one owned up to the prank. At first, everyone grumbled about how they would have to clean it off. Alvis was the first one to begin rolling it up, then Claus and Lavie joined.

Soon everyone was helping create the great snowman, and when it was done, Lavie said it was even bigger than the last one.

Tatiana frowned heavily at the snowman, until Alister put her scarf on it.

"I'm pretty sure he -does- like the cold," She said, patting it affectionately.

No mechanic would own up to throwing the first snowball. By the time the volleys of flying snow had stopped, the deck was swept clear save for the snowman. Even Mullin was covered in white, powdery flakes.

Only Sophia noticed, in the bridge while they watched the figures below, the stiff way the captain seemed to move, the work-tired set of his eyes. Occasionally, he flexed his fingers as if they were sore.

"A fine memory for the Silvana," She said aloud, straight faced though it was difficult.

"It will remember for a long time," Alex answered, eyes watching everyone laugh through the glass. 


End file.
